Soho

Soho has been London's going-out district for two centuries, and the people who live there are the ones who never quite went home. Henry VIII took it as a royal park, the aristocrats built it up for themselves, and the moment they moved west the fun moved in and never paid rent. Living here means a flat above a restaurant and a front step that strangers use as a smoking area at two in the morning, every morning. It is the best address in London for anyone whose idea of a garden is a pub with tables on the pavement.